Jan 31, 2014

About two years ago I bought a sewing machine. It was on sale and and I bought it on impulse thinking one day it could come in handy. I brought it home and then one weekend I decided I was ready. So I read the manual, watched the DVD and finally tried some straight stitch. It was a total disaster. The straight stitch wasn't straight at all. As a child I used to watch my aunt sewing (she was an elementary school teacher and used to do these cute things like aprons and stuffed animals for her classes) and seemed easy enough; so I tried again ... same result. In that moment my fiancee’s head peeked through the door : “ could you please fix the tear in my gray hiking pants...”. By then I was starting to feel deeply disturbed at the prospect of being horrible at it. I knew it was most likely temporary... but still. I was bad at it and the easiest way to eliminate that feeling, was to quit practicing and do something else. “Sorry, I can’t, the machine is broken” I answered and abandoned the thing for two years.

They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. From this perspective the idea of “mastering” a skill when you are just starting, I think might be a little counterproductive and exploring a new skill could become quite scary. In the case of ultracompetitive, easily ranked fields the “10,000 hours rule” undoubtedly applies. However, more often than not, and certainly for me, performing against a world class competitor is not the case. It is far more likely that you want to learn a skill to get a particular outcome. So I needed to set a “reasonable” goal for myself, to establish a reachable outcome in order to be able to push through the early frustration. It had to be a finished object, it makes it all much more rewarding compared to completing tons of tutorials, but not something that was supposed to be wearable, avoiding thus the pressure to make it actually wearable.

Where would I find such a project idea? Down the Pintrest rabbit hole, of course. Few days later after having put behind me the frustration of the first 20 hours or so I came up for air having finished this decorative pillow:

I’m quite proud of it and decided I’m willing to put in the time and do the work and “master” this new skill.